Most people, when thinking of Nuns, think women of God. Religious women of the Catholic faith. Others think of the 2018 movie, The Nun. Sister Maria Crocifissa originally set out to be the former, then became a vessel for the devil, penning a note directly from him.
Maria Crocifissa Della Concezione was born as Isabella Tomasi in Sicily in 1645. The daughter of Prince Giulio Tomasi di Lampedusa, she was a descendant of the famous Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Not much is known about her childhood, though we do know that she entered the Convent of Palma di Montechiaro at the age of 15.
The convent was a Benedictine, following the teachings of Saint Benedict. Saint Benedict founded the Benedictine order in the 6th century, making it the oldest religious order of the western church. Teachings of the Benedictine order traditionally focused on work, peace, and prayer.
What you may not know about nuns is that they take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They spend much of their time in prayer in an isolated monastery. And at the Convent of Palma di Montechiaro, the nuns had especially high expectations. They were to live life solely for the word of God, preferring nothing else.
After joining the convent, Isabella Tomasi was quickly baptized and renamed Maria Crocifissa Della Concezione. She was friendly, and quickly made friends among the other nuns. Sister Maria joined the choir and kept up with her studies. She even became a skilled linguist, learning languages such as Latin, Arabic, Greek, and others.
We don’t know exactly when, but Sister Maria began suffering from alarming fainting spells during prayer at the altar. She would let out a terrifying scream that echoed off the walls before passing out completely. The once gentle woman became increasingly paranoid and fearful. She claimed the devil was tempting her to serve evil.
One day she joined the other nuns for a prayer. Sister Maria started yelling at the top of her lungs, screaming like she was in immense pain, as though someone had stabbed her. Then she suddenly fainted. The other nuns were frightened, and worried. These bouts of screaming and fainting became a regular occurrence, despite her being treated for her panic attacks.
Sister Maria began having visions of the devil. On one notable occasion she went to confession to ask a priest for God’s forgiveness. She relayed her fear of being possessed by Lucifer. Suddenly she fell into a dark fit of rage. She became disrespectful and shouted at the priest. It was uncharacteristic of her, like she wasn’t the one speaking at all.
Afterward, she reportedly had no memory of what had happened. Once she found out though, she became distraught and started praying even more.
Days later, on August 11, 1676, Sister Maria didn’t show up for choir in the prayer hall. Noticing her absence, one of the nuns asked the other women if they had seen her. Oddly, no one had.
The search began and ended fairly quickly. Sister Maria Crocifissa Della Concezione was in her room seated on the floor in a truly frightening state, almost unrecognizable. She sat, gasping for air, the left side of her face smeared black with ink.
Sister Maria was also surrounded by pages of what appeared to be a letter. It was written in a series of obscure symbols that didn’t match any known language.
Unable to stand up, the other nuns helped Sister Maria lay down and asked her what happened. Her account was recorded by Mother Sor Maria Serafica, giving us the details we know today.
Sister Maria claimed she had been plagued by a series of fainting spells. They became more and more overwhelming as she faded into and out of consciousness. Without realizing what was happening, she grabbed a quill and parchment and began frantically scribbling out the strange symbols for hours on end.
According to Mother Sor Maria Serafica, “She said that having confessed days before the demons told her that many words had spoke of irreverence towards her confessor… She saw herself surrounded by a great number of furious evil spirits sent by the order of infernal Lucifer and taking the paper, and the pen that [Sister Maria] Crocifissa had in order to write, and commanding one of those damned spirits to write.
[Lucifer] was immediately obeyed, and while dictated what he wrote…the words were all against God.”
At the bottom of the page, spaced how a signature would be, was the word, “Ohimé” (oh me), the only comprehensible word among all the pages. Based on previous events, and the state of Sister Maria and the letter, the nuns determined it to be an elaborate scheme by Lucifer himself, to turn her away from God.
The contents of the letter remained undeciphered for over 300 years until, in 2017, a group of researchers from the Ludum Science Center in Sicily, were able to decode most of the pages.
They discovered an algorithm on the dark web and used that in conjunction with military grade decryption software to help decipher the code. The letter contained fourteen lines, and consisted of Arabic, Greek, Latin and, the Runic alphabets – all languages Sister Maria had learned during her studies.
While 30% of the letter is still undecipherable, what was translated was enough to scare anyone. They declared the letter to be nothing but pure evil, the tone being uniformly pessimistic and threatening. One line reads, “God thinks he can free mortals… This system works for no one.”
The letter went on to describe God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as “deadweights,” and created by man. “God does not exist. Trinity is fake. There is only me.”
Another line references something not of the Christian faith, but the river that separates the living from the underworld, something from ancient Greek mythology. “Perhaps now, Styx is certain.”
As for Sister Maria Crocifissa Della Concezione, little is known about what came next for her.
“I personally believe that the nun had a good command of languages, which allowed her to invent the code, and may have suffered from a condition like schizophrenia, which made her imagine dialogues with the Devil,” said Daniele Abate, director of the Ludum Science Center.
Scientists believe that both her age, and the pressure of being a nun became overwhelming for Sister Maria. These pressures could have contributed to her becoming bipolar, and possibly schizophrenic. Rather than being a demonic possession, they believe it was the result of a mental break.
What do you think? Could Lucifer have possessed a nun? Or was she mentally unstable?
Have you heard of the Devil’s bible, a.k.a. the Codex Gigas?
